Congress quietly voted itself a pay raise this week, and Iowa Congressman Steve King, a republican from Kiron, says the pay hike’s warranted.King says it’s a big expense to keep a second residence in the D.C. area, and he says the two-and-a-half percent “cost of living” pay increase “isn’t a big deal.” He says Congress would have to vote itself a “big raise” eventually if it goes for a year or two without marginal increases. The yearly pay for members of Congress is about one-hundred-58-thousand dollars. The pay raise plan would boost that by about four-thousand dollars. Leonard Boswell — the only democrat in Iowa’s Congressional delegation — says he opposed the pay raise. Boswell said “Congress has simply not earned a pay raise” since record federal budget surpluses have been replaced by record red ink.
